The objective of the development team was to capture the look and feel of the movies, and they've certainly portrayed it as accurately as we've ever seen in a game. Lightsabers leave trails as they flash through the air. Battles are fast and furious with Jedis blocking each other's strikes with amazing accuracy -- and poly-to-poly collision support means that the lightsabers hit exactly as they should when you're in the middle of a frenzied exchange, and also promise to cut down on those annoying clipping problems that we're so used to. There are also body-specific hits, so if you tag your opponent in the leg, he's likely to acquire a nasty limp -- that is if you don't cut the leg completely off, a fate we saw befall a few unlucky Stormtroopers who happened to get in Kyle's way.

RAL_Thrawn: LucasArts seems to be trying to establish a better dialogue with the fan community. Are their plans to support editing communities for new releases such as Outcast and Galaxies? And even for games such as Jedi Knight and Mysteries of the Sith?

Simon Jeffery: Thanks for noticing our new efforts with regard building and supporting our community. We appreciate everyone's enthusiasm. LucasArts is diligently working toward accommodating the desires of our fans to allow for a greater level of interaction with our Star Wars games and original titles. We can't provide any specific details right now, but you'll be hearing more about our plans very soon. We think you'll be happy when we roll out news about it.

Shady_IJ is hosting a series of tournaments. They will be held in Tournament Room 1 at Zone.com and be called Fighting for the Iron Cup. They are all listed in order below.

7/25/01 10:30am Central Time
7/27/01 7:00pm Central Time
7/28/01 10:00am Central Time

If Shady is busy it will be hosted by another Iron Jedi member.

• JK Deathmatch Levels only (no ctf or other levels with modified gameplay)
• 8-bit mats only in the main pack - levels will be judged on 8-bit mats, but if enough people want it, we will release a 16-bit mat pack to overwrite the 8-bit mats (must be network-compatible which I think excludes skyboxes)
• No modifications to JK gameplay, weapons, skins, or models - this is a level contest, not a skin, model, or other type of contest
• Only new, non-released levels will be accepted - no modifications of LEC levels, either
• Deadline: probably about a month and a half from today - more details and a specific date later
• Judge information will be released on a later date
• No work derived from other games or levels will be accepted!

There is now another tutorial available. This one details how to improve the bots' performance through better node placement, using the special path node system and using custom cogs. I've also created a contents page of all the tutorials to make finding what you need a little easier. Check it out here: http://rbots.massassi.net